Sentinel nuked my red bugs, but...

[xtlosx]

So I have been battling cyano for a LONG time, not quite sure why, but in the last 2 months it had gotten almost cleared up... I run high capacity GFO, keep my po4 .03 or less, skim heavy, etc, etc. My SPS have good coloration, great polyp extension, and then I realized.. I had the dreaded red bugs.. I didn't do anything with them for a while as I had scheduling issues that kept me from being consistent for three weeks and these buggers literally were with me for almost half a year.

Finally I bit the bullet 3.5 weeks ago, and man not a red bug to be seen. My SPS are now so much happier, polyp extension is huge, growth is back, and all around we are good! The only thing is... after the second treatment I started seeing MORE cyano than I had going into the treatments. Now it's a couple of days after the third and final treatment and my cyano is just worse than it has been in months, have some hair algae all over a lot of my rock, and my tank looks like crap... Acros look great, polyp extension is good, etc, but just a lot of nuisance algae. Hanna PO4 tester says .00 which is obviously not the case, but there's no free floating phosphates and my GFO is sucking up what is coming out.

The question I have is, I know Sentinel will nuke red bugs, all copepods, amphipods, etc, etc, but I would have to think it would nuke stuff that is living in the sand bed no? I'm wondering if whatever was nuked was helping keep my tank is check?

Anyone happen to have any scientific information about this, or am I just losing my mind? I'll deal with it as I have in the past, but wanted to see if there was any link between the two.

 

[Andyf30]

I don't think that the Sentinel itself is responsible, but the deaths of all of the microorganisms (pods, etc) and the decay of those would possibly cause a nutrient spike leading to more algae.

 

[xtlosx]

I don't think that the Sentinel itself is responsible, but the deaths of all of the microorganisms (pods, etc) and the decay of those would possibly cause a nutrient spike leading to more algae.

Sure, and that's what I mean... an unintended consequence of killing so many microorganisms may have caused that pollution to my tank.... I had a large 1.5yr old pod population, so as they ramp back up again and my wrasses\mandarin gets to work it should come in check.

Thanks for your opinion.

 

[rovster]

Totally normal. Same happens after interceptor treatment. It's from all the die off. Sucks but it will pass. Maybe amp up the water changes until things improve.